*STARRED REVIEW Inimitable Kevin R. Free returns for another happily ever after match with bestselling author F.T. Lukens. As the story begins, the hardest part is over – right? Arek and his BFFs have beheaded the Vile One, saving the realm of Chickpea. Until the rightful...
*STARRED REVIEW Lee Osorio bestows Daniel José Older’s newest series with an outstanding first volume – hopefully signaling further perfectly tuned duets. Once upon a time, the Caribbean island of San Madrigal was home to “that particularly wonderful mix of humanity ...
Emily X.R. Pan melds east and west in a hybrid fantasy/reality novel inspired by two sets of star-crossed lovers: China’s Houyi and Chang’e (the Archer and the Moon Goddess) and Romeo and Juliet. In 1991, Hunter Yee and Luna Chang are 17-year-old seniors at Fairbridge...
Axie Oh adapts the traditional Korean “Tale of Shim Cheong” as the basis of her latest novel, her first foray into exploring folklore. Her unique version features 16-year-old Mina who, unwilling to watch her adored older brother lose his beloved Shim Cheong, replaces herself as...
Nigerian Canadian author Deborah Falaye’s Yoruban mythology-inspired debut (introducing a planned duology) presents Nagea, a nation brutalized by the genocidal Lucis. Only her grandfather has managed to keep 15-year-old Sloane safe, until she’s drafted into the army. Being a Scion – “a descendent of the...
Naz Kutub commingles the preposterous and poignant, heightened with myths of lost love. Shawn K. Jain is a sensitive cipher, opening with Kutub’s author’s note that includes content warnings about abuse and expulsion, both of which happen to Sy, the 17-year-old Muslim Indian gay son...
*STARRED REVIEW Bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz remarkably has two 2022 Cinderella adaptations: The Stolen Slippers, introducing not-evil stepsisters, and this, in which “Cendrillon” is a Lady in King Louis XIV’s Versailles Court. So much of de la Cruz’s exceptional retelling – with even a nod to...
E.M. Tran's author's note about the provenance of her absorbing debut novel begins with her mother's beauty pageant trophy, which always graced the top of the family piano. "How did it get there, through the chaos and danger of Saigon's collapse?" Tran asks. For refugees...
*STARRED REVIEW Amit Chaudhuri – novelist, poet, essayist, musician – dexterously expands the quotidian into philosophical, sociopolitical, and existential ruminations in Sojourn, a sparse narrative with undeniably dense resonance. An unnamed Indian writer arrives in Berlin for a four-month university residency. He's befriended, then abandoned, by a...
Leah Cypess debuted her middle grade “Sisters Ever After” series in 2021 with this enchanting retelling of Sleeping Beauty with maybe a bit of Rumpelstiltskin mixed in. The audiobook follows a year later, releasing simultaneously with the series’ second installment, Glass Slippers. Prolific, versatile Jessica Almasy...
Nghi Vo’s stupendous debut, The Chosen and the Beautiful, alchemized (and improved) The Great Gatsby by shifting narrative control to supporting character Jordan Baker. Vo dramatically gifts similarly transformative autonomy to her latest protagonist, Luli Wei, who is clearly a revisionist stand-in for legendary Asian American film...
*STARRED REVIEW Considered one of Korea’s greatest novelists, Pak Kyongni (1926-2008) is revered for her multi-volume epic Toji (The Land, 1969-1994), designated among the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works. She began publishing autobiographical short stories, inspired by tragic post-Korean War experiences, exposing the high cost of survival,...
Bestselling Korean author J.M. Lee (The Boy Who Escaped Paradise, 2016) deftly unwinds another intricately plotted narrative, his third English translation available Stateside, this time ciphered by An Seon Jae, the British-born, naturalized Korean octogenarian scholar-teacher better known as Brother Anthony. At 43, artist Hanjo has...
In her fifth adult title, Gabrielle Zevin (Young Jane Young, 2017) impressively interweaves multiple threads that twist and tangle around what is essentially a decades-long love story. Jennifer Kim ciphers most of the narration, deftly distinguishing the main three players, with a brief interlude voiced...
Their collective story begins in McAllen, Texas, just seven miles from the U.S./Mexico border. For generations before, Octavio Izquierdo’s predecessors “used to come and go, crossing freely, still in their own country,” before an “imaginary line” delineated nations and separated families. In 1958, Octavio is claiming “a...
*STARRED REVIEW Already a prestigious bestseller in Korea, Kim Hye-jin’s impassioned novel about the meaning of family – by blood, by choice – marks her English-language debut, seamlessly translated by National Book Award longlister Jamie Chang. A mother is desperate to help her thirtysomething daughter, an...
Palestinian American Lameece Issaq expertly ciphers debut-novelist Peter C. Baker’s quartet with equal conviction beyond geographies, genders, and backgrounds. In Rome, Amira – born Maria, now a convert to Islam – works in a shop and returns to an empty apartment because her immigrant husband...
*STARRED REVIEW Debut author Belinda Huijuan Tang's immigrant father is a gregarious storyteller, especially about his rural Chinese upbringing, but he has one story he's never been able to finish, about his lost father. Tang empathically transforms that incomplete memory into her exquisite novel, A Map for...
Nell Young, former New York Public Library cartography scholar, is summoned back to the hallowed Map Division when her director father is found dead in his office. Seven years ago, he ignominiously fired her over the Junk Box Incident and she’s hasn’t seen him since....
Lio Min's soulful debut novel, Beating Heart Baby, highlights music, art, and the love of family – by birth, yes, but more significantly by circumstance and choice. Their emotive narrative spotlights Filipino American artist Santi and Korean Japanese American musician Suwa, playing out a tumultuous relationship...
